Wrestling

Darrell Hirashima, the hugely popular and successful girls basketball coach, suffered a massive heart attack on Sunday and is currently on life support at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Walnut Creek. He is 56.

The heart attack was preceded by a lesser attack approximately two months ago.

Hirashima coached Miramonte for 11 seasons and owned an overall record of 238-85 with four North Coast Section Division III championships, including three of the past four. Under Hirashima, the Matadors had reached the postseason each of the past 10 seaons, and won 20 or more games in each of the past nine.

He was not retained to coach Miramonte for the 2008-09 season, an incident that led to a large community outcry against the Acalanes Union School District.

Hirashima’s son Darrell Jr. is in his first year coaching the Acalanes High boys basketball team.

I was fishing for wrestling news tonight and found out that Ohio State wrestler Nikko Triggas, the Campo grad himself, will be hosting a live chat on Wednesday, Nov. 12, from 1:30-2 p.m. (Ohio time, not Pacific time). I almost feel like dropping by to ask a question!

Also, 2007-08 Times Athlete of the Year Jason Welch got his collegiate career off to a good start by taking second at 157 pounds at the Michigan State Open.

And finally, with signing day coming up, Liberty’s David Klingsheim has committed to Nebraska and Ryan Smith has committed to UNC-Greensboro. De La Salle’s Tyler Sheridan has also committed to Columbia, but won’t be signing a letter (no athletic scholarships in the Ivy League). As I find more, I’ll let you know.

The contingent of local wrestlers that made the trip to Fargo, N.D. for the Junior National wrestling tournament from July 20-26 is back and a couple of old pals each made their way to the medal stand. De La Salle’s Tyler Sheridan placed third in the 145-pound junior Greco-Roman competition. He won the third place match, defeating Joseph Cozart of Florida 1-4, 5-0, 2-1. By placing, Sheridan earned All-American honors.

Liberty’s David Rios also brought home a medal and All-American honors, placing sixth at 145 pounds in the junior Freestyle competiton. He dropped the fifth-place match to a fellow Californian, El Diamante-Visalia’s David Watts. Watts was the state runner-up this season at 140 pounds.

CalHiSports.com released its male athletes of the year today and 2008 Times Athlete of the Year Jason Welch of Las Lomas was named the Division II Athlete of the Year.

Welch, who is training in anticipation of his move eastward to Northwestern University, excelled in football, wrestling and soccer this season. He finished the season as the top-ranked 160-pound high school wrestler in the country according to almost every amateur wrestling publication.

Also receiving mention was Monte Vista’s Drew McAllister, who was named a Division I Athlete of Distinction. McAllister was a three-sport star (football, basketball and track and field) and he’ll play safety at USC next season.

How exactly did Campolindo grad and current Ohio State wrestler Nikko Triggas follow up his fifth-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials? He hopped on a plane and headed to Ecuador for the Pan American Junior Greco-Roman Championships.

As it turned out, the trip was a fruitful one for Triggas. Over the weekend of June 20-22, Triggas won four gold medals. Two were of the team variety, as the United States won the team competitions in both Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. It edged out Ecuador 67-65 to win the Greco portion and beat Venezuela 74-64 to take the freestyle crown. Triggas played a big part in the team success, winning gold in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman. He defeated Venezuela’s Jose Figueroa in the freestyle title match and beat Ecuador’s Andres Montano to win Greco gold.

I couldn’t miss an opportunity to talk wrestling, could I? Las Lomas wrestler Jason Welch closed his high school career with a win this weekend, defeating Hinton, IA’s Marcus Edgington 24-9 (technical fall) at the Wrestling USA Magazine Dream Team meet in Iowa.

Offseason wrestling news alert! Lisa Triggas, proud mama of former Campolindo wrestler Nikko Triggas, wrote me today to say that Nikko qualified today for the U.S. Olympic Trials in Greco-Roman wrestling by winning his weight class at the University Greco-Roman Championships.

Triggas is a two-time Junior National champ in Greco-Roman and I don’t think it should surprise anyone that he’s picked up right where he left off in high school. He’s currently attending Ohio State, where he started all year at 125 pounds for the Buckeyes.

So with my game washed out last night I got to sit back and enjoy the live blogging skills that Chace Bryson put on display up at Arco Arena. A quality job by everyone’s favorite Geek.

While I was reading that though, I was keeping an eye on a bit of wrestling news. Las Lomas’ Jason Welch competed at the Dapper Dan Wrestling Classic in Pittsburgh, PA last night. For those not in the know, it’s a Pennsylvania vs. the USA all-star event and it is one of the more prestigious tournaments in the country. Welch competed at his usual 160 pounds and he beat Redbank Valley’s Jonathon Brothers by major decision, 22-11. His was the only major decision of the night and it earned him the USA’s Most Outstanding Wrestler award. Easton-PA’s Jordan Oliver got Pennsylvania’s Most Outstanding Wrestler award for winning the 130-pound match. The USA ended up winning overall by a score of 28-12.

And you thought I wouldn’t be able to find wrestling news in the offseason… A quick scan of the results from this past weekend’s Big Ten Championships shows that Campolindo grad Nikko Triggas finished sixth at 125 pounds. Triggas, who has been in the lineup all year for the Buckeyes, lost 13-5 to Illinois’ Gabe Flores in the fifth-place match.

With wrestling tailing off, I’ll have more softball than you can shake a stick here on the East Bay Prep Sports blog. This weekend the season begins in earnest with the Queen of the Mountain tournament at Willow Pass Park in Concord. I’ll have a preview in the paper later this week as well as some commentary here on the blog.